is when you dedicate all of your time to bettas (whether you should or not), and it rubs off on the people around you. My mother and I were at Petco today getting dog treats and she held a betta up to me and said she could not believe how dirty the cup was and went and told an employee. I was so tickled that she listens to my rants and explanations about bettas and wanted to right the wrong. A few hours later, my sister in law starts sending me pics of the absolutely horrifying abuse of bettas where she lives (seriously, I have never seen worse cups) and asked me what was wrong with each of them according to their symptoms and asked for advice on how she might go about changing the water. I was floored. Then again a few hours later, an acquaintance of mine messages me on Facebook and starts asking me a billion questions about bettas and asking if I could help her rehab one if she adopts one in need. She told me she wants one for sure and wants to do it right.

A lot of people have been saying lately that this is a hopeless cause and a waste of time compared to all the other "problems" in the world. I don't see it this way. I think that we can all make a difference just by sharing what we know and love with those around us. No person can fix a problem by themselves, and therefore no problem is too insignificant. It's the effort to make the world a better place (in one way or another) that actually makes it a better place. :) We can change the way bettas are kept and sold just by spreading the word and being examples.

All these small steps make a big difference. I have wanted to spread the word about loving/keeping bettas, but so far there have been few takers among my friends. I've been giving these out, because they're so cute:

my 2 friends now LOVE bettas they now want to breed bettas and they are getting there own bettas soon! bettas are all they want to talk about now. people will just stare at us because we will talk about halfmoons and someone came over and said it was just a fish....my friend yelled at them